““We approach the Led market with manufacturers that have a clear distribution strategy.”, Go Aixa

A few months after closing 2018, year that the director of Maverick in Iberia, Go Aixa, rated as “very positive and in which we have seen great signage projects”, this division specialized in professional AV solutions from Tech Data, explains to Digital AV how they are going to deploy all their knowledge engineering, commercial support, logistical and financial to promote a market in transformation and generate opportunities for the channel.

(DAV): They recently held the fourth edition of their Maverick Vendor Summit event with the main manufacturers in the AV sector., What is the message that has been transmitted to you to address a market in transformation??

(AND): This year we have focused on two clear messages: how to establish change in companies that impact divisions like Maverick, where we have had to adapt year after year to new clients, technologies, products, business processes,…and how we want to continue doing it in 2019 with new tools, products, etc. that help the market grow and not turn it into a market as niche as until now.

Another clear message is that manufacturers also have to change, since the traditional manufacturer model, wholesaler, distributor, integrator,…no longer valid. You have to evolve and you also have to have the desire to participate with other manufacturers and other types of solutions to tackle joint projects..

What resources and tools does Maverick offer to help you make that change??

We have several tools, as a new internal management process for launching products and solutions that will help us links product management is much better, its communication and the commercial tools necessary to make it a success.

We have presented our partnership with the Avixa association, in which Maverick has a very large presence, and although it is better known in the Anglo-Saxon market, its commitment to Southern Europe is becoming stronger, and we are helping them incorporate new partners.

We want to be the meeting point between manufacturers, the association, the clients,…to continue professionalizing the market, which is a fundamental element to grow.

We also present a tool that we use for internal training -Maverick Academy-, an online platform to train our teams and that has to be fed by resources that the manufacturers give us and that is a direct communication channel between the manufacturer and our team.

And in terms of competencies on the part of the manufacturers, What changes do you have to address??

Some things have to change, because in the end it is a battle between everyone: between the manufacturers themselves, with the wholesale market, between us and the competition,…and a key part of this entire chain is the end customer, who is the one who has to make the decision and carry the project forward.

The idea is that we leave aside personalisms that do not add value, and sit down to understand what the need is, with the ability to talk to other companies, that may be competition or that complete your solution, to actually tackle that project.

At Maverick we provide the knowledge of all these partners and put them together. In the signage part we have been working like this for years, and this applies to other areas of the company, because it is a model that works very well.

Does your role as a specialized division of Tech Data also change??

No, because we have a clear role: the distribution (of hardware, software and services), we do not sell to end customers, and we work as a meeting point.

Our position as a wholesaler does not change, except now, as Santiago Méndez has defined very well, director of the Advance Solutions division, we are a 'solution orchestrator' in a hybrid world.

As far as business is concerned, digital signage and collaboration define its proposal. In this last case, what are the opportunities?

The opportunity we see is the diversity of clients. Normally we had clients dedicated to the job, coming from the IT market, with a very high knowledge of infrastructure and license management, y, for another, AV clients dedicated purely to this market segment, but they didn't talk to each other.

This has changed because there has to be interoperability between a meeting room and the workplace, since it is really the platform that determines what technology should be implemented. At Maverick we go to clients who work on these platforms to help them also tackle AV projects, with the necessary support so they can complete an entire project.

And is that integration being noticed??

We increasingly see how technology clients diversify their areas and include AV solutions in their portfolio. These are just two channels or types of customers., because our customer categorization is much more varied: from marketing companies, to architectural studies…, and each one needs a different speech.

That is a bit of the work we are working on more: create a pitch and look for new customer niches, because it is the only way to maintain and generate business.

In 2018 We have made many agreements with manufacturers to cover different technologies: the entire Microsoft XRS family with various companies; with Zoom Video to distribute ZoomRooms, with cloud video conferencing software and management companies,…

Do they perceive the replacement of the projector vs.. screen/video wall in corporate rooms?

You have to find a product for every need, but it is true that we will see less and less projection in the typical meeting room, especially for installation and stability issues. Instead, the penetration of interactivity in the company is still very low, and we go back to what we were before: You have to change the habit of collaborating to use an interactive panel.

And in education?

It's very curious, because there is talk that the interactive panel is completely replacing the projection, and there is a trend that says the opposite: that the interactive panel falls short in terms of size, since the costs in terms of inch skyrocket compared to projection, harmful effects on vision,…and all this means that the projection is not finished, but quite the opposite.

Also, consolidation has to occur in the projection market. We have had two years of very small growth, and that makes it not so attractive for all brands, some of which will leave this market. Those that remain will focus on the most profitable products, in mid and high range, and at Maverick we want to take advantage of this trend.

They have presented a proposal defined by a range of Led, although it is a market that is still not very mature and without a very clear distribution strategy. How do they approach it from Maverick??

We associate LED a lot with our signage area and outdoors., but the product is really applicable in corporate and collaboration environments. We are going to focus on a specific line of Led, fine pitch, below 2,5 mm y, as far as possible, in standard solutions, closed, of 16:9, which is where we believe we can add value in terms of scalability and logistics.

We are going to move into two markets to develop this Led offer: in the corporate environment of meeting rooms and signage, where they look for large format and quality; and in the retail sector, What we do in flagship store, luxury retail interior, where they require a specific Led system to differentiate themselves from the competition.

How are they going to establish this Led vs.. LCD?

Everyone thinks that the LED is going to eat the LCD, and it is true that it will have an impact on what videowall is, with clear competition in terms of sizes and prices. But both markets will grow and the weight of each technology in the total will remain as it is now with a 60% in LFD y 30% an LED.

We are going to treat the Led as another product, taking into account that the LED has specific specifications and there is great ignorance and suspicion. That is why the key is to have the knowledge and tools that we have developed to understand the need and the appropriate Led product for each project., as viewing distance, the size needed for that distance, the ideal luminosity for a meeting room, etc.

This is the differentiating element in our LED distribution proposal.: have the information and be able to share it with clients when approaching a contract.

But, in a very competitive market like that of Led, with a dominant presence of Chinese companies, lack of standards and installation policies, maintenance,… What are the distribution bases going to be??

We help put some order and we will approach this market with those brands that are mature and that have a clear distribution strategy in Led and with the channel. We will not try to compete with local importers.

We have signed a European agreement with Unilumin to distribute a specific range of its Led portfolio, and we have manufacturers like Samsung, with a clear strategy and ready to launch now, as well as with other companies such as LG, NEC Display, Optoma,…who have a product and we are waiting for them to explain to us what their distribution strategy for LED will be., channel support, services, etc.

¿Qué expectativas se han marcado?

We start almost from scratch, and the growth will be exponential without a doubt, although we have not set figures because we have to see what part is going to move in distribution. We have put resources, And for next year what we have to do is learn how manufacturers work and how the tools we are creating are received in the market so that Led demand grows in the corporate market..

The specialized AV model is increasingly present in the business proposal of the wholesale market, what is the differential of maverick?

We will soon celebrate ten years of activity in Spain, and in that time we have seen how the market has changed and how it is consolidating. We are going to have to fight in a very competitive environment, but that keeps us agile.

Our keys to differentiation are that we have a very solid project at the European level., and we have opened Maverick Australia, United States and Canada, which places us in a preferential position vis-à-vis manufacturers, with great negotiation skills and the possibility of launching own solutions on a global scale, and all that is very powerful.

The experience of these ten years allows us to anticipate where the market is going and we are one step ahead of our competitors., with clear support from Tech Data towards specialization. Many of the projects that will be key for Maverick in the coming years come from Tech Data.

It seems then that 2019 it will be a year, the least, interesting, How do you value the one that now ends?

It's been a good year for us, with double-digit growth for the division, and also for Tech Data because we go hand in hand. We have seen great projects in digital signage, as well as an educational business that has finally made the transition from whiteboard to panel (public tenders prove it).

In collaboration we have tackled some projects that show that we are here to stay, because we have a lot to contribute. We had a strong impact when Microsoft decided to end Hub and that impacted us, but the advantage of Maverick is that it is a profitable and well-diversified division, allowing us to move resources where there are opportunities.

A few months after ISE 2019, Will your stand again have the hospitable Aloha from other editions to offer these messages?

Yeah, our message of hospitality will continue, and we reopen our Tiki Bar, with a new design. In addition, Vision will have its own stand attached to our space.. The objective is to continue professionalizing the visit, since last year we collected more than 3.500 leads of real clients who passed by our stand and whom for a few 6-7 minutes we explain our added value.

The platforms and how they determine technology will be our base message, and we will approach the signage environment from the point of view of how the hardware needs to be part of a complete solution and how Maverick distributes and approaches those projects.

In two years this contest will be held in Barcelona, where Maverick plays at home. Do you already have any approach?

Yeah, We are already working on some issues, and what is certain is that we will have much more work. We are already collaborating with Avixa for that moment, with the aim of the Tech Data Spain office in Barcelona being a hub or an extension of the Maverick and Avixa stand at the event. Our offices will be used for meetings, training and helping to professionalize the sector.

Avixa has about fifty partners in Spain and we are helping them increase that number with more companies that want to be part of the association..